Magic in Manhattan
by Land of The Delta Blues
Summary: What starts out as a routine car accident investigation for Goren and Eames quickly turns into the strangest case they've ever faced involving trolls, fairytales a kidnapped infant that isn't fully human and maybe even questions on Goren's own humanity.
1. Chapter 1

**Plot Line:** It's been one year since the events of The 10th Kingdom and life has gone back to normal in New York City with Tony Lewis even having been able to return to his old apartment. However, life has a way of getting weird again when the troll kingdom abducts Wolf and Virginia's son. Also what happens when the New York City Police department is drawn into the commotion? Will things ever be normal again?

 **Inspiration:** Ever since I rediscovered my childhood love for The 10th Kingdom I've been trying to figure out which of my other fandoms I could cross it over with.

 **Spoilers:** Pretty sure there are no spoilers.

 **Rating:** T just as a safety point.

 **View Point:** Third person.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own the 10th Kingdom (neither book nor mini-series) and I don't own Law & Order: Criminal Intent...I'm just a fangirl with too much time on her hands and too many contrasting fandoms.

* * *

"Hey, hey don't cry." Tony Lewis held his infant grandson hopelessly, wishing he could actually understand why the baby wouldn't stop crying. Wendell, that was what Virginia and Wolf had decided to name their son after King Wendell, didn't have a dirty diaper and he wasn't hungry but he had been crying uneasily for the past half hour or so. Tony had even tried simply holding the infant and cuddling him which usually seemed to calm him, but this time it was to no avail.

Almost desperately Tony looked towards Prince who was sitting at his feet. The dog was obviously no longer inhabited by the persona of his grandson's namesake and possessed no more intelligence than your average Golden Retriever, but Tony could still understand exactly what he was saying thanks to the dung bean wish. He had also returned to the 10th Kingdom with Tony becoming his pet and usually helpful companion. "Do you have anything to add to this?"

"Trolls," was all the dog said in response.

Tony was caught off guard by the dog's word. "Trolls? What does that even mean? We're in New York City, there are no trolls here." He turned back to his grandson hoping a silly tone of voice would make him laugh "Prince doesn't know what he's talking about does he Wen?"

Wendell simply continued crying in response. Before Tony could become frustrated with his newest failed attempt a loud crash sounded from the streets below. Still holding his grandson, Tony rushed into the kitchen of the apartment to peer out the window. There had been a car crash in the streets below he noted. An unusually tall pedestrian had been hit by a taxi cab. Tony stopped and tried to squint at the scene to see what other details he could pick up about the crash victim. It almost looked like they were wearing animal pelts and something metallic glinted in the street next to them.

It took him a few seconds to process what he was seeing, but when it finally registered he realized Prince had been exactly right. Trolls were yet again in the streets of New York City.

xxx

"I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. I mean I've been on the force fifteen years, but this is downright bizarre." the officer insisted pulling up the crime scene tape to let Detective Alex Eames under it.

"Trust me, my partner and I have seen..." Eames trailed off as her eyes landed on the large ax lying at her feet. The ax itself was strange enough, but the large arm it must have been thrown from upon impact was even more so. The arm itself was larger than that of a normal human being, and as her eyes trailed up to the body it belonged to she realized it managed to dwarf her partner who was already crouched next to the corpse.

"She's wearing animal pelts but I can't identify the species," Detective Robert Goren stated looking up at her as if he were crouched next to a normal corpse.

"Are you sure that's a she?" Eames asked looking at the body and her partner incredulously.

Ignoring that it was possibly a rhetorical question Goren responded "the victim has prodigious breasts."

Eames sighed as if to indicate that it had indeed been a rhetorical question. "Several witnesses stated that she had a friend of unknown gender who went into the apartment building directly in front of us after she was hit. A couple of officers are canvassing to see if we can find out anything else."

Goren nodded before pointing at something sticking out of a bloodstained satchel the giant woman had been carrying over her shoulder. "Look at this."

Eames bent closer, snapping on her own gloves as she did so. It appeared to be a rolled up piece of what could be best described as parchment paper and it was bound with a leather string. "Is that some kind of note?"

Carefully grabbing it with a gloved hand Goren pulled the paper out of the satchel. Next, he handed it over to her and she carefully untied the leather string.

The top of the page was adorned with a grotesque symbol involving some kind of deformed head, but the message itself was even odder. "The Troll Kingdom has declared an act of war against The Witch of The 10th Kingdom and her inhuman mate for the murder of Relish the Troll King, the father of the current ruling triad." Eames paused to read Goren's expression before continuing "We intend to carry out this act by abducting the witch's firstborn child and taking it back to the Troll Kingdom."

"Trolls huh? There's a D'n'D convention going on downtown at the Hyatt" the officer who had let Eames under the tape had apparently continued to stand behind her and was now offering in his own observations. When the two detectives looked at him as if to ask how he knew such information he shrugged and added "I don't get it myself, but my son is really into tabletop roleplaying."

"Well if she's a convention goer it shouldn't be too hard to identify her," Eames sighed hoping that the simple explanation was indeed correct.

Before either detective could say anything else, another officer appeared at the other side of the tape and spoke to Eames. "Detective, our canvas found another victim."

"This is a car accident, how could there be another victim inside?"

The officer, who had to be a young rookie barely out of the academy looked for a second as if she realized she phrased what she'd said wrong. "Well actually it might be unrelated circumstances, but as I was canvassing a dog ran up to me and began barking. He had blood on him so I followed him back to his apartment and the door was broken in." The officer paused, still not quite getting to the point. "The apartment owner, a fifty-four year old man named Anthony Lewis was lying in a puddle of blood on the living room floor."


	2. Chapter 2

It had been near impossible to find a body bag for the giant corpse but after much hassle the strange body had been carted away to the morgue. Now came what was supposed to be the easier task, finding out about the second victim. Mr. Lewis had been rushed into emergency surgery and therefore wasn't able to shed any light on who had hurt him or why they had done so. As a result, even more doors had to be knocked on. The building supervisor had described him in a way that almost indicated that he was the leader of some strange cult and Eames almost wasn't surprised by this turn of events. However, as the description had been rather unhelpful in leading to a cause for the attack and the information had been noted for later reference while another source of information had been sought out.

Mrs. Nieman seemed to be that source. At seventy-five years old, she had lived a floor above the victim for several years now. Almost immediately after inviting Goren and Eames inside she'd offered the two detectives coffee and lemon scones. "What can I do for you detectives?"

"We need to ask you some questions about your downstairs neighbor." Eames tried on a smile to reassure the old woman it was okay to talk.

"I heard about what happened but I don't know what I can tell you that would help." Mrs. Nieman responded.

"Even a small detail you think isn't important might be able to help us find out who hurt him," Goren pressed on. "Does he have any friends, any family members we can contact?"

This seemed to perk Mrs. Nieman up a little, "he has an adult daughter, Virginia." She paused before continuing. "She lived in the apartment with her father until about a year ago." almost as if telling some great secret she lowered her voice and leaned closer to Goren before speaking again "poor thing never seemed to have much interest in men, we all thought she might be one of those lesbians."

Goren and Eames exchanged a confused look, unsure of where the conversation was going. Finally deciding that it was time to move the conversation along Goren asked "Does Virginia have a girlfriend?"

"No, no...about a year ago she bought home some young stud. Poor thing mustn't have paid attention in sex ed because that young man almost immediately got her pregnant. I think she had to marry him out of shame."

Eames shook her head silently, trying not to smile at the woman's overt bluntness. "What did Mr. Lewis think about this?"

"That's the thing, he was off on some soul searching trip somewhere in the Middle East at the time."

"On a janitor's salary?" Eames probed into what the woman had said, feeling as if there was something concrete and suspicious to be found in this comment.

"That's what Virginia told me. You know she lived in the apartment with her new husband for a time while Mr. Lewis was gone," as she paused again a weird twinkle appeared in Mrs. Nieman's eyes "I dropped by one morning just to see if I could get a good look at the stud, as she'd kept him on a tight leash. That's when I saw his tail."

Tail had to be some kind of euphemism for an abusive side Eames decided. "Have you seen Mr. Lewis's son-in-law abusing him or is he just violent towards Virginia?"

"No, no other than getting Virginia pregnant he's been a perfect gentleman towards her and her father." Mrs. Nieman assured.

"You just said he had a tail? That's usually a way to state that someone is violent without directly stating so." Goren tried to act as if he was softening the blow so that the old woman might continue to open up. "Has Mr. Lewis's son-in-law threatened you?"

The old woman returned his stare remaining levelheaded "It was sticking right out of his pajama bottoms. A big bushy grey tail."

xxx

Maybe she was experiencing what was known as mother's instinct, or maybe it was just discomfort with the drunken frat boy ogling her. Either way, Virginia found herself uncomfortable with her work tonight. When she'd returned from the kingdoms, surprisingly the job at the Grill on The Green had still been waiting for her as Candy had found some way to vouch for her absence. However, a few months later when her and Wolf had found their own place she'd been forced to let it go in favor of, O'Shay's, a bar and grill a few blocks from the new apartment. Wolf had found employment at the bar too, working as a cook and that seemed to make the whole situation a little more bearable on most occasions. Tonight however she couldn't shake the ever pervasive feeling that something horrible had happened. Still, part of her job seemed to call for her to be polite and helpful, even to customers such as the frat boy and even when she felt as if she needed to be somewhere else protecting her cub.

"Can I take you home with me tonight?" frat boy asked, acting as if his overtly blunt pickup line was the height of human intelligence.

"Sorry, I'm afraid somebody already beat you to that, I have a husband." Virginia responded, trying on a fake sweet smile and hoping the frat boy didn't catch that she was suppressing an urge to break his beer bottle over his head. Before he could respond, Virginia happened to look up towards the doorway of O'Shay's and locked eyes with a petite blonde who was too well dressed to fit in with the usual crowd. The woman was immediately readable as a police detective and the fact that she was followed by an equally overdressed man only cemented this point.

The moment the woman locked eyes with Virginia, she began moving towards her with her partner trailing close behind. "Are you Virginia Wolfson?"

Virginia pulled herself away from the frat boy wondering if the sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach had been completely right, "what can I do to help you detectives?"

"I'm Detective Eames, this is my partner Detective Goren," the female detective paused and smiled "We'll try to make this quick so you can get back to work so that your boss isn't upset with you, but we have a few questions about your father."

"My boss?" Virginia turned to where the detective was looking confused. Mr. O'Shay had left for his brother's funeral in Omaha the previous night. She quickly realized who the detective was talking about. Wolf had came out of the bar kitchen and was standing several feet away sizing up the detectives. She realized they must be a strange and somewhat frightening sight to him. Although he was no longer in the nine kingdoms, she knew he still had memories of being unjustly hunted simply for being a wolf. Turning back to the detectives she sighed "whatever my father has done I'll make sure he pays for it."

The Detective Goren fitted her with a curious look. "It's interesting that you said you'll make sure he pays for it. Your father was found unconscious in his apartment. Somebody beat him pretty badly."

In that moment Virginia suddenly felt as if her world had been ripped from beneath her feet. She was almost certain she was going to fall to the floor until two strong arms wrapped around her from behind, anchoring her. It seemed Wolf had forgone his fear of detectives in favor of keeping his mate safe. Although she still felt almost like a scared child at the news of her father being hurt, with Wolf there holding onto her Virginia felt a bit more steady. "I thought you meant he'd accidentally vandalized something." Suddenly another point popped into her head. By how rigid Wolf suddenly became behind her, she realized he'd likely had the exact same thought. "Is Wendell okay?"

"Wendell?" the Detective Eames looked briefly confused.

"Yes, Wendell, our cub. Is he alright?"

Virginia was already used to Wolf referring to their son's nonhuman side by calling him a cub, but she was surprised when the detectives barely reacted on to the odd choice of words.

Instead, Detective Goren tried to soften the blow of what was about to be said. "Do either of you have a photo of your son?"


	3. Chapter 3

One of the bartenders popped his head into the bar kitchen. "Hey, your wife is talking to some police detectives. Thought you might want to know." The man sounded like he wished he didn't have to provide the courtesy information, but Wolf was almost glad for a reason to be out of the kitchen. Tonight had been particularly uneventful for him, but he could smell nervousness in his wife and he didn't like that he was unable to ease whatever feelings she was having.

However, detectives and wolfies were never friends, and now this made him take pause just outside of the kitchen and watch his wife from a distance. There was something else that deeply unsettled him as well. He could smell another wolf inside the bar. The owner of the smell wasn't his son Wendell, although if it had been he would have found reason to be unhappy with an infant being in such a place. He felt almost caged by the presence he couldn't quite identify until his mind finally zeroed in on the source of the scent. The other wolf was none other than the big detective who was talking to his Virginia. Wolf himself was over six feet tall, but this man was still bigger than him. It wasn't enough of a height difference to suggest that there might be troll DNA in the other man as well but it was enough that if the detective decided to unleash his animal side Wolf wasn't sure if he stood a chance.

It didn't take long for the wolf detective to confirm his worst fears and hurt Virginia. It wasn't a physical wound but an emotional one caused by the news of what had happened to her father. To Wolf, this kind of wound was just as bad as a physical one. His mate, who had already suffered enough emotional turmoil to last an entire lifetime, was in pain. This was enough to make him forgo his own fearfulness towards detectives in general and towards the wolf detective in particular. Swiftly he raced forward, and grabbed her from behind. In his arms she seemed to calm down a bit until she remembered something else.

Wolf found himself on the same wavelength but Virginia was the one who first voiced their concern. "Is Wendell okay?"

The human detective looked as if she'd never heard the name before in her life and this irritated Wolf so that his next words came out with a stronger edge than originally intended. "Yes Wendell, our cub. Is he alright?"

Instead of responding, the human detective walked to what she thought was out of earshot and pulled out her little talking device. The wolf detective stayed close to them and Wolf could feel that he was in a way almost sizing not just him up, but Virginia as well.

xxx

The night had gone from uncomfortable to something much worse for Virginia. As if what had happened to her father and Wendell wasn't bad enough, the police had drug her and Wolf to the police station and her husband was acting strange for seemingly no reason.

At every chance he got, Wolf seemed to be sizing up the male detective and putting his own body in between her and the police. At first it didn't bother her. After all, wolves mated for life and she was his mate. However, it soon began to wear on her. She wanted to wrap up whatever police report needed to be filed as quickly as possible so she could get to finding her son and checking on her father and Wolf's actions were making it incredibly hard.

Finally, what her husband was doing began to wear on her to the point that she didn't even care how it would look dismissing the detectives from the room looked. It wasn't as if either of them had hurt her father or kidnapped their own son so sorting out their problems seemed minor to her.

Putting on her most convincingly angry look she turned to the detectives "I want to talk to my husband alone."

"By all means don't let us prevent you from doing so." Detective Goren put his hands up in mock surrender before gathering up his binder. His partner, Detective Eames, followed him while making some excuse about how she wanted coffee.

As soon as the door closed behind the two detectives Virginia turned to her husband with fire in her eyes. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Wolf seemed unable to make eye contact with her when he spoke as if he thought that whatever he'd done wrong made him immediately unlovable in her eyes. "Oh Cripes! Virginia I'm sorry I..." he cut off himself mid sentence in favor of nervous whimpering while pacing the length of the room.

She wanted to stay mad at his actions, but something about how he was acting reminded her of how he'd been back in the sheparding village over a year ago and everything that had made her so angry in the first place slowly melted away instead giving out to the soft pleading of a woman who was as broken and scared as her husband. "Please don't cry Wolf. We need to hold ourselves together for Wendell and my dad." Even Virginia could hear her own voice wavering. However, at this point it wasn't an option to have the detectives walk back into the room to find them both crying without her finding out exactly what she wanted to know so she swallowed the lump forming in her throat and continued. "We can't do that if we're not honest with each other. I just want to know why you're acting almost like we're in a cage."

Wolf stopped his whimpering and pacing, now standing directly in front of her still looking incredibly shaken up although no longer in a way that indicated he thought himself to be a failure. "What am I supposed to do when another wolf is hurting my mate?"


End file.
